Forsberg breathes life into Flyers

With two goals and an assist, he re-energizes the team and the crowd.

April 27, 2006|By Don Bostrom Of The Morning Call

The Flyers used the Peter Principle to climb back into their Eastern Conference quarterfinal series with the Sabres on Wednesday night.

In a game the distressed home team absolutely had to win, Philadelphia turned to peerless Peter Forsberg and the sublime Swede showed why many hail him as hockey's greatest money player by literally banking in a pair of clutch goals and adding an assist that lifted the Flyers to a 4-2 victory.

There were also just enough speed bumps at the Wachovia Center to help the Flyers slow down the swift Sabres. Buffalo still leads the best-of-seven series two-to-one, but they might not be in for the joy ride they were expecting on the road to the Stanley Cup.

"That's why Peter is here," beamed linemate Mike Knuble. "He was a presence all over the ice."

Flyers coach Ken Hitchcock agreed.

"He's the leader," Hitchcock said. "Where he goes, we go."

Forsberg knew he had not made the proper impact on the series in Buffalo.

He accepted full blame for not contributing enough and used that as motivation for Game 3.

"It is never, ever one player," he insisted. "Every single guy stepped it up and contributed. Sure, I have a lot of responsibility to make things happen, but this was a team effort. We all worked hard."

Things looked bleak early, when Ales Kotalik beat goalie Robert Esche for a 1-0 lead just 2:37 into the action.

Brian Savage probably saved Philadelphia's season when he beat rookie goalie Ryan Miller with a blistering slap shot while short-handed to knot things four minutes later.

"That was the biggest goal of the series," Hitchcock said.

"It definitely got the team up and going," noted Savage. "I think the fans got back into it, too. When they scored the first one, the fans sort of got down."

The sellout crowd, which showed solidarity with their beloved team by sporting Orange Crush tee shirts, were on their feet when Forsberg gave the Flyers their first lead of the series with an unassisted goal at 6:57 of the second period.

Forsberg is a creative genius, but he confessed that he wasn't trying to will his fluttering shot off a pair of Sabres and into the net with a Jedi mind trick for the fluke goal that changed the game's complexion.